may your days be merry and bright

Ah, sweet elixir coursing through my veins. I didn't intend to be lying in bed weaving slowly and cheerfully through the fumes of a whisky/rum cloud that will eventually turn into a hangover, but c'est la vie (or c'est ma vie? I don't know French, but this is definitely my life, if not the life). When I awoke this morning, I took a shower and went to Morning Due to have breakfast and write for awhile -- and I was successful, too, writing several pages over eggs and coffee. On my way home, I stopped at Safeway for eggs and cream, then stopped at BevMo (Beverages and More, for the uninitiated) and bought rum, bourbon, cointreau, maraschino liqueur, and two bottles of wine. The cointreau was for Terry; the maraschino liqueur was for my future attempts to recreate the Hemingway daiquiri; and the rum and bourbon were for the egg nog that I wished to experiment with tonight.

When I got home, Terry was in the midst of major holiday preparations -- she had been baking cookies and shopping for ornaments, but right when I got home, she and her sister went down the street and bought a Christmas tree to decorate. So, I spent the late afternoon decorating; she took care of the tree, but I did other things I'd been meaning to do, like reorganizing the living room bookshelves, changing the lightbulbs in the kitchen, and starting to hang the picture frames we've been intending to hang for ages. Katrina came over around 6:30, and we went to Roam to pick up burgers (which were utterly delicious, and may have convinced Katrina that there are benefits to living in the Marina, since they had turkey burgers sans buns, which was right up her alley).

Then, I made the egg nog, and the night devolved from there. By the time Terry had a cup of it (which was not a full glass -- I was serving them in my Irish coffee glasses, which are more like 8oz, and they weren't full), she was too drunk to even think of driving her sister home. Katrina was smart and went the Hemingway daiquiri route, which meant she was eventually able to bike home; I was not smart, and had three glasses of nog, and so was quite pleasantly drunk while Terry and I watched all of "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. I'd never seen it before, so Terry was drunkenly adamant that we had to watch it -- and I must say that I totally enjoyed it, hammered or not.

And now, I must sleep. If you would like to make your own egg nog, the recipe is here: http://256.com/gray/recipes/eggnog/. The ingredients are 4 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup white rum, 1 cup bourbon, 1 1/2 cup milk, and 1 cup whipping cream, which should explain why we got so thoroughly soused. It tasted nothing like the uber thick, cloyingly sweet nonalcoholic carton egg nogs of my youth, and everything like a whisky shot with just enough of something else (uh, rum?) added to keep me from throwing up in disgust. Yum. Now that I've sold you on it (really, it was delicious), enjoy. Goodnight!